1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to devices for analyzing polarization dependent properties of light beams.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
A light beam is described by wavelength, amplitude, phase, and polarization. Conventional optical communication systems have used both amplitude and phase modulation of light beams as the basis of schemes for transmitting digital and analog information. The polarization of a light beam provides an additional property that could be modulated to carry analog or digital information.
For a modulated polarization to carry information, an optical communication system must have a receiver that is configured to measure a polarization-dependent property of the received light beam. Conventional optical analyzers for polarization-dependent properties have typically either used complex optical analyzers or operated in ways that reduce information capacities in polarized light beams. The complex optical analyzers have many optical components and are undesirable due to the high expense associated with their fabrication. Reducing the information capacity of a polarized light beams is also undesirable, because this result could destroy a major advantage that polarization modulation potentially provides in optical communication systems. For these reasons, conventional optical analyzers for polarization-dependent properties are undesirable in optical receivers that are configured to extract information from polarization-dependent properties of light.